I know I'm busy year-round, but at this time of year, I get to the point of busy-ness that it starts to freak me out a little. Can anyone relate? Holidays, work, projects, family...while it's all wonderful and I know I'm incredibly blessed to have all these things in my life, I have to admit that my heartrate goes up every time I allow myself to think about all the things I need to get done in the next month. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

My crafty projects are piling up, but in a twisted sort of way, they're actually keeping me sane. Because they are the one thing in my life that seems within my control. I can do them my way on my time, and when I finish them, they are REALLY finished. No lingering on for days while someone else ponders if they are good enough. If I say they're good, they're good.

And I've gotten a LOT done in the past month. I finished my first round of projects for Coordinates Collections with the Just Desserts kit (still a few left in the store...grab one while you can). It's full of the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology papers, which are so fun to play with. The resist patterns work beautifully with mists and inks, and I went a little "mist-crazy."

Three shades of Glimmer Mist (Tattered Leather, Pink Bubblegum and Caribbean Blue) that I sprayed in different areas of the page, then blended together with paper towels. I also misted the Prima Craftable Flowers with Pink Bubblebum and then a spritz of Tattered Leather to give them a weathered feel.

I took the "cotton candy" theme of this one and ran with it, misting the "doilies" to get a reddish pink color and using Distress Ink in Spun Sugar on the border strip. The polka dot paper from My Mind's Eye was perfect because it has a slight blue undertone and it really worked with these photos.

The glitter-bordered paper was cut out of a die-cut page that had this beautiful scalloped bookprint border. I loved the border so much, I wanted to use it on other things (actually, you can spot some of it in this layout and in the first one above), and I thought the glittery border would pop off this olive cardstock. Love the crepe paper border from My Mind's Eye...it was begging me to be a ruffle.

There are so many possibilities with these papers -- I'm tempted to get another kit because I know I could make them look totally different on the next go-round! Check out the kit ideas from the other design team members -- some really inspiring stuff!

Our Design Team coordinator, Lori, challenged us to create a project using Echo Park products along with the Imaginisce i-Top and/or i-Rock tools. Well, I love Echo Park and I had some of the Sweet Summertime collection on my shelf, so I was up for the challenge! Here's what I came up with:

And I used the i-Top to make some ripe red apples for this cute little tree.

And did you see this?

Last year, when this call went out, I immediately wanted to try out. I knew I loved the products, but the little voice in my head said "you'll never make a team like that." Still, I went ahead and sent in my projects because I figured I'd never know unless I tried. I still remember how hard my heart was beating when I saw the email from Imaginisce sitting in my inbox a few weeks later. A year later, it's still hard for me to believe I got the chance to do work with these amazing people and a company that, well, is just completely awesome!

If you're thinking about trying out, by all means GO FOR IT!! As I told myself a year ago, you'll never know unless you try. And sometimes, you surprise yourself!

Head over to the Imaginisce blog for all the details and be sure to enter the Echo Park/Imaginisce giveaway while you're there!